General Information

Over 85 percent of new businesses fail within a few years, often because they try to plan their way to success. It’s time to change.

The International Business Model Competition is the first and largest lean startup competition in the world. The competition's primary aims are to educate and inspire smarter entrepreneurs who launch ventures that are more successful.

​The IBMC is a unique student startup competition focused on the inputs, not the outputs, of the entrepreneurial process. The competition requires active identification and validation of crucial business model hypotheses rather than the writing of a static business plan, talking to customers outside the building rather than gathering secondary data inside the building, applying customer development rather than relying on product development, and “pivoting” or changing course rather than executing on the plan.

Specifically, the IBMC rewards student entrepreneurs for:

1) Identifying and tracking key business model hypotheses (use a canvas)2) Testing and validating those hypotheses with customers (get outside the building)3) Pivoting and iterating their business model based on customer interactions and feedback

Submissions for the competition focus on the process entrepreneurs undertake as they test their most crucial hypotheses with customers and develop validated business models. The goal is validated learning about the key business model hypotheses and failing early is a success compared to failing late.

Ultimately we believe this new approach will improve the success rate of new ventures, allowing entrepreneurs to save both time and money in the process. The IBMC is open to all students enrolled at an accredited institution of higher education anywhere in the world. Each year thousands of student teams from hundreds of schools all over the world participate.

​Business Model vs. Business Plan

The International Business Model Competition is about recognizing that any new venture is just a guess at a problem / solution and the only valid way to test whether those guesses are right is to “get outside the building” and start working with customers. So what exactly is the difference between a business model and a business plan?Outside versus Inside the Building: Most business plans are written using library research. Successful business models are achieved through talking to customers and making changes based on feedback from those conversations. Input versus Output Focus: Most business plan competitions are focused on compelling write-ups and slide presentations that check all the right boxes. In the IBMC, sleek presentations are not going to cut it. And the boxes that do need to be checked are completely new and impossible to fake. The goal is to identify your assumptions and turn them into facts by getting outside the building. And when a startup has done this, the story is compelling and it is an awesome one to tell because it is based on facts. Validated learning about what customers really want is the stuff a business model is made of and music to the ears of potential investors.Lean Development versus Product Development: Most business plans imply a careful development process to optimize the final outcome. Forget it. Apply Lean Startup principles to radically compress your development cycle and take a prototype (even if it is just a picture drawn in the late hours of the night) to jump start the learning process. Find the most creative but minimally viable product and start learning.Change versus Fortify: Most business plans attempt to fortify/prove the core idea with evidence. Judges of the IBMC will be looking for instances where teams learned they were wrong and made a pivot in a new and right direction. Your application should focus on the lessons learned and “pivots” made—the more the better.Chasing Customers versus Chasing Funding: Let’s face it, many business plans are written to raise money. Unfortunately the business plan formula doesn’t capture the answers VCs most want to see: real validation you can make a product customers want. Instead of chasing the money, chase customers. Getting into the field you will validate the model and raising money will be easy (see appendix for more). Launching versus Talking: Business plans often talk about what will happen in the future. The IBMC is about what you learned by applying a Customer Development / Lean Startup / Nail It then Scale It process.